JIM WURZ, president of
Bonide, a supplier of home,
lawn and garden pest solutions
for Costco, says the family-owned, multigenerational
business is guided by a three-pronged culture.

“The first is family. We tryto engender a family atmo-sphere, and I think we’re prettysuccessful at it, but then [also]a culture of safety and a cultureof continual improvement,”says Wurz, who is part of thethird generation at Bonide.“And we’ve been blessed withsome very open-minded peopleover the years that embracethese things as if they weretheir own. They internalizethem and there’s not muchthey can’t do. I never cease to beamazed at what our crew canaccomplish when it’s time tobuckle down.”Bonide manufactures anddistributes a number of products, such asBurnOut, a natural weed and grass killer.

“While we have always produced both
synthetic and natural products, over the
past ;; to ;; years we have added dozens of
effective products that also happen to be
natural,” says Tom Feldmann, vice president of marketing and national accounts
for Bonide. “By focusing on effectiveness
first, our brand became very popular with
organic gardeners.”

Founding family

Bonide was established in ;;;; by
Wurz’s grandfather James Wurz Sr. and
James’ brother, George, in the family-owned Wurz Hotel in Utica, New York. The
brothers collected sales orders all summer,
produced their merchandise in the hotel
throughout the winter, and shipped products directly to farmers, feed stores and
hardware retailers in the spring.

In the following decades their lineexpanded to a full assortment of consumerhome and garden pest control products,fueled by the victory gardens of WorldWar II. (These vegetable, fruit and herbgardens were planted at private residencesand public parks to increase food produc-tion and help offset the rationing that tookplace during this time.)

“All those victory gardens really werethe genesis of how, I believe, gardeningbecame America’s great passion and mostpopular pastime,” Wurz says. “And at thatpoint, all manner of retail stores came intoexistence to cater to this kind of, I don’tknow if you’d call it a movement, but atleast a demand.”In the ;;;;s, his father, JamesWurz Jr., and his uncle, Edward,were the second generation to jointhe business, which eventuallymoved out of the hotel and into aformulating and packaging facilityin the ;;;;s. Today Edward’s sonMichael is vice president of infor-mation technology and Michael’sbrother Gregory is vice president ofmaterial management. Many otherfamily members have worked in thebusiness through the years.

PHOTO COURTESY BONIDE / LORRY HULBERT

COMPANYINFO

COMPANY Bonide Products Inc.

PRESIDENT Jim Wurz

EMPLOYEES More than 200

HEADQUARTERS Oriskany, New York

WEBSITE bonide.com

ITEM AT COSTCO

BurnOut, a natural weed and grass killer

QUOTE ABOUT COSTCO

“Costco is a company with a conscience.

From employees and members to vendorsand Mother Earth herself, everyone gets afair shake. We at Bonide feela certain sense of [compatibil-ity] with this, as it is verymuch in keeping with our ownattempt at adherence to thegolden rule. If we all just takethe golden rule to heart andrespect each other, we’ll dojust fine. And I think that’sprobably at the core of howI run the business.”–Jim Wurz, president of Bonide

Besting the pests

Giving back

“One important lesson each genera-tion imparted to the next is that givingback, charitable works and tithing areevery bit [as much] the corporate obliga-tion as any other business responsibilityis,” Jim Wurz says. “To that end, we areproud to point out our Bonide Foundation,which was established precisely to meetthese obligations.”The foundation was created in ;;;; toprovide financial resources to commu-nity organizations, such as local chaptersof the ;-H Club and the Future Farmers ofAmerica. In addition, the foundation pro-vides college scholarship grants to thefamily members of Bonide employees.

As the Bonide team looks forward to
celebrating the company’s ;;;th anniversary in eight years, its leaders strive to
instill the work ethic exemplified to them
by their forefathers throughout the past
;; years. C